{"id":8096,"date":"2011-12-16T14:24:08","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T22:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8096"},"modified":"2011-12-16T14:24:08","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T22:24:08","slug":"pennsylvania-gives-thanks-aqueduct-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/pennsylvania-gives-thanks-aqueduct-superstar\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania gives thanks; Aqueduct, superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This has been a terrible fortnight for S&G<\/em> but, hey, we’ve got some good news from Pennsylvania<\/strong>. Last month’s gambling revenues were reported this morning and they’re up 12%, thanks mostly to the growing popularity of table games. (Atlantic City<\/strong>, beware.) As for what might be called the “Aqueduct Effect,” of which I had grown skeptical, here it is: Sands Bethlehem<\/strong>‘s slot revenues are on pace to come up maybe $4 million-$5 million short of Wall Street<\/strong> projections. That’s it<\/em>. In terms of growth (40%), if not sheer dollar volume ($54 million), Keystone State tables had a blockbuster month. The aberration was Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs<\/strong>, which was 1.5% million off last year’s pace — flat, in unadjusted dollars — which seemingly betokens a combination of bad marketing and much worse luck. In terms of percentage gain, The Meadows<\/strong> racino “only” rose 12%, while Sands was up an astronomical 107%, also enjoying the biggest dollar-for-dollar increase, too. Other than Parx Casino<\/strong> (up 59% and tops overall with almost $11 million), the high-jumpers included newbie SugarHouse<\/strong> (32%, passing Harrah’s Chester Downs<\/strong> in dollars won) and erstwhile laggard Rivers Casino<\/strong>, up 46%. Throw in double-digit gains in slot revenue at both casinos and it was a good month to be Neil Bluhm<\/strong>, who’s got the Midas Touch these days.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mohegan Sun partly redeemed<\/strong> its dismal table performance with a 12% upsurge in slot revenue. Harrah’s was one of only four properties to register declines at the slots, but a 32% spring in table win compensated literally fivefold. Sands, however, is going to be the year’s success story, having blown past Harrah’s to become the second-highest-grossing casino in Pennsylvania, after being in the middle of the pack a year ago. Nobody’s catch Parx, which will gross almost a half-billon dollars in 2011, but if Sands continues to shrug off Genting<\/strong>‘s new casino at Aqueduct<\/strong>, it’s going to have some impressive bragging rights … and might finally pencil out at somewhere near the revenues Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> predicted for it when it was a slots-only place.<\/p>\n

Paging Andrew Lloyd Webber<\/strong>. None of this is meant to pooh-pooh the performance of Resorts World New York<\/strong> unto itself. So remunerative has the Gotham casino been that CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets<\/strong> headlined its report, NYC casino superstar<\/em>, on the strength of the rasino’s $41 million debut. (For context, that’s as much as longer-established Parx pulled in last month.) This, writes analyst Jon Oh<\/strong>, “implies a daily net win of $551\/unit,” not to mention “the considerable depth of the New York City<\/strong> market.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Why is that so impressive?<\/strong> After taking into account Resorts World NY’s massive VLT inventory of 2,486 machines, it’s per-machine isn’t just well above average for the Empire State. It’s considerably better than — to use Oh’s selected comparisons — the average casino in Illinois<\/strong>, Pennsylvania or Atlantic City, as well as Venetian Macao<\/strong>, Wynncore<\/strong> and Venelazzo<\/strong>. In other words, to see headier numbers per machine you’d have to go to Marina Bay Sands<\/strong> or, better still, Wynn Macau<\/strong>. This puts an exclamation point on an upward trend in 2011 New York State<\/strong> gambling revenues and, when you add Genting’s $380 million licensing fee, means Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/strong> (D) will be able to book $1.1 billion in casino-generated dollars. (Not to mention the lovely collateral effect for VLT makers International Game Technology<\/strong>, WMS Industries<\/strong> and Wall Street darling Bally Technologies<\/strong>.) Small wonder Cuomo’s been making vague noises about upgrading the state to Class III gambling and soon. As for those companies who merely feinted at Aqueduct but pulled away — and you know who you are — it’s a mistake your shareholders are certain to rue now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has been a terrible fortnight for S&G but, hey, we’ve got some good news from Pennsylvania. Last month’s gambling revenues were reported this morning and they’re up 12%, thanks mostly to the growing popularity of table games. (Atlantic City, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,77,73,28,14,120,29,58,62,91,95,111,12,108,32,20,38,89],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8098,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8096\/revisions\/8098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}